Credit Cards and My 18 Year Affair

I still remember my first piece of plastic. It was a Citibank MasterCard, it was then followed by Lerner's, Macy's and Discover and about 26 others.

During my young adult years, I spent a lot of time shopping. My favorite hobby was shopping. When I went out with my mom and sisters, we went shopping. When I hung out with my girlfriends, we went....you guessed it SHOPPING!!! But it was more than that for me. I was obsessed with the little rectangular piece of plastic. I mean I loved the colors, the logos and the feeling of power that the plastic gave me. I searched high and low for a wallet that had enough slots to dispaly my little trophies of power and adulthood (and bondage as I would later learn).

As time went on, the shooping became therapy. I realized that every time I was upset, happy, sad or really angry...I shopped. God forbid I had an argument with a boyfriend. I would come home with outfits, chocolates and anything else I could purchase with plastic. It got really, really bad and ugly very quickly. Why? Because I stared collecting those little plastics. It didn't matter what department store they belonged to or what the store sold. If they had a card, I wanted it. I didn't even have a driver's license or car, but I had a MOBIL card.

What did I buy? Everything. I would take the hour and a half break between my two morning classes in college (in Manhattan) to walk to the village from 23rd street and shop all the way there and all the way back. I always walked in to class with bags, (I bet you everyone called me the bag lady). I would climb over the desks, bags in tow. Sometimes I would frequent Godiva, other times I would hit Bloomingdale's. I just wanted to shop, shop, shop. I worked two jobs just to be able to afford that lifestyle, but it caught up with me years later. When I started a family and wanted to stay home with my oldest son, I started to learn the error of my ways.

To Be Continued...

credit card debt
my life
debt

Here's Proof That Getting Rich Is Simple

Wealth takes many ingredients as I stated in my previous post Can Blogging Make You Some $$$ or Even Wealthy?. As I was doing some reasearch for an article about debt elimination I came across an article by Harry Domash called Getting Richer Is Simpler Than You Think.

In his article he says that becoming rich is simple. It is all a matter of having all the key ingredients at the same time.

He talks about investing (saving) your money and then using three key ingredients to maximize their profit.

What are the three ingredients?
1. Income
2. Discipline
3. Time

For more read here:
Getting Rich Is Simpler Than You Think.

rich
wealth
success

Work From Home To Become Debt Free

Many people have different reasons why they want to work from home. Your reasons are valid. One way of making some extra money is writing articles. I have come across several different opportunities and are listing them for you.

1. This site is looking for writers with good writing skills.
Paidwriter
2. This site is looking for writers that can produce tutorials and must have knowledge of Adobe Photshop.
Fotofects
3. To be part of this Yahoo Group that posts ads for writers, you must sign up. It's free and the jobs pay$$.
PayingWriterJobs
4.This site is an excellent resource. It's called a career center for freelance writers.
Freelancewriting

I hope that you are successful in finding some interesting and profitable employment opportunities. Leave me a comment and let me know. Good luck!

I will be posting more work at home opportunities in the future. Bookmark my blog for easy reference in the future.

work from home
debt free
freelance writing

Debt Management and Elimination

Previously, I gave examples of ways to cut your expenses to use that money to pay off your debt. I discussed how looking for less expensive living quarters and/or moving closer to your employment (to cut travel expenses), may help cut corners.

Now if you don't want to take it from me, here is an article found on MSN Money written by M.P. Dunleavey. It highlights many of the suggestions I made, plus a few more.

The article suggests an individual question choices made in a few major areas of life, to see where drastic changes can be made to save some big dollars.

Here is an excerpt of the article with a quote from Financial coach Steve Rhode, author of “Eliminate Your Debt Like a Pro,":

Drastic debt calls for drastic measures
Or, as I say these days, you gotta practice Extreme Debt Reduction. In other words, slashing the comfy way-of-life expenses we are all attached to. Here are the top four for the average American family, according to Rhode:


Where we live

What we drive

Where the kids go to school

Vacations, vices and other big-ticket indulgences (Can anyone forget Carrie Bradshaw’s $40,000 shoe collection on “Sex and the City”?)

My husband and I didn’t want to change our way of life any more than you do. But there is nothing like the nasty taste of a thousand bucks a month going down the Visa toilet to change your mind. Fast.

It makes you think, huh? Sometimes, becoming enslaved to debt is not just a product of a few wrong purchases, but a collection of lifestyle choices.

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